Task, The (2011) - 2/5

After Dark films has a knack for covering a wide range of films. By wide range, I mean wide range of quality that goes from impressively awesome to abysmal crap. I've even given up trying to guess which ones are which. This is why I tried to go into "The Task" with blank expectations. "Seconds Apart" was surprisingly effective, but "Area 51" was horrifyingly terrible. Where would "The Task" fit? As it would turn out, it fits right about in-between.

A group of cliche people are chosen to be part of a new reality TV horror show entitled 'The Task'. The group of producers and tech guys are anxiously awaiting their shot at making it big, while these contestants are put in fear's path by having to stay the night in a supposedly haunted abandoned prison with a horrible history. The producers have lined up a series of frightening tasks for these contestants, but the biggest trick of them all just might be that the real ghosts of the prison have a few tasks of their own.

So basically, "The Task" is a modern twist on "The House On Haunted Hill"...expect not quite as good as the remake even was (which isn't saying much). Group of (insert connected young group of people here) are killed off by the ghosts of an abandoned (insert terrifying place here) while thinking its part of a game. Familiar eh? Even the reality show twist doesn't quite save it from seeming cliche. It has its moments of fun ridiculousness like the asinine contestants, but more often than not its just simply run of the mill.

So if the characters are gimmicky and the story rather cliche, it better have some solid scares to sell it. Pfft. You wish. "The Task" has remarkably ineffective scares and kill sequences. Our shirtless and mustached villain rarely makes one cringe and our characters are knocked off in rather bland ways. Shank? No shit. Gas chamber? Wow. That's original. I definitely could have used a bit more of an intense take on the horror aspects of the film.

In the end "The Task" isn't horrible, but it rarely stands out against the usual horror shrapnel that makes its way to home release anymore. It has a few moments here and there...not enough to really make it one of the After Dark Original highlights though.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

51 (2011) - 1/5

After being pleasantly surprised with "Seconds Apart", my faith in the After Dark Originals was rising...only to be crushed by the science fiction/horror atrocity that is "51". As with "Scream Of The Banshee" I was instantly discouraged by the SyFy logo that graced the beginning of the film and nothing from that point on lead me away from those assumptions. In fact, it may only go downhill from there as any hope of legitimate science fiction or horror is swept away in shoddy special effects, horrid acting, and a knocked off script from far better films. Yeah, it's that good.

Due to commercial pressure from the news and the people of US, the government has decides to let two very invasive reporters spread the word about what's truly in Area 51. With the military on half patrol and a plan to let them see everything but the actual aliens in the facility, the tour seems to be going fairly smoothly. That is until a shape shifting alien called Patient Zero decides to let loose a few of his pissy alien friends...

It's always refreshing to have to push one's way through a film, knowing by half way through that it isn't going to get better. "51" is exactly how that is. From its poorly designed sets, lacking vision of the story, and its horrendous acting it was borderline stressful watching this film wash down a perfectly hilarious concept. Hilarious in all the wrong ways, I do mean to say. Our actors seem half assed in their dedication to the characters as the characters are written and the plot progression is about as by the numbers as one can get, only separating itself long enough to throw in some completely random details that rarely make sense (the purple vapor for Patient Zero is actually a mixture of bloods....why? Who the fuck cares?).

On top of being completely idiotic in its plot and characters (who puts that many inept soldiers on the most top secret base anyway?), the film itself blatantly steals from other far superior science fiction horror films. The military and alien battle with the two insectoid like monsters obviously steals moments and ideas from "Alien" and our survivors below with the shape shifter has far too many stolen ideas from John Carpenter's "The Thing". This is executed with reluctant dedication to the special effects that look as cheap as the SyFy original it became.

Fan of science fiction horror films? Don't bother with "51". It's cheap, silly, poorly executed, and down right burdened with trying to sell a half thought through script. Only good for unintentional laughter of which there is a few good moments. That's about it though. Not worth the time nor money unless one is intentionally looking for the bad. In that case, eat up.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Seconds Apart (2011) - 3.5/5

There is something to be said about the results of low expectations. Let's be honest, "Seconds Apart" didn't seem to have a lot going for it on paper. The After Dark Originals thus far have more or less been misses, the film has Orlando Jones in it (you know, "Make 7...UP YOURS!" guy), and it's about twins with the power to control people's minds. There's not a whole lot that would indicate a solid independent film. Ironically, it is. Surprisingly solid acting, a story that rise above the gimmick, and a well structured storytelling process makes "Seconds Apart" the best After Dark Original thus far.

Seth and Jonah (Entin and Entin, respectively) are two very strange twins. They are almost identical in every way and they creep their classmates out. It's a legit felling since the two have some very creepy abilities like telekinesis and telepathy and they get their kicks by making their fellow students do creepy things, record them, and then wipe their minds. When a detective (Jones) begins to suspect the twins in a strange suicide case, he finds himself spiraling down into a long tunnel of deceit, danger, and creepy twins.

"Seconds Apart" does a surprisingly effective job at rising above its gimmicky premise. Granted, it has some moments that fall prey to its concept and its oddities, but this film tries its ass off not to feel that way.
The writing is clever enough to not treat itself like a made for SyFy original film (particularly with its rather intriguing twist ending that caught me off guard...even if it doesn't really make sense) and even though it runs into a few cliches along the way like its tragedy stricken detective, it pushes for the sky and it pays off.

This is also helped by the higher end quality of the film. It looks like a theatrically released horror film. It's got great production values with some solid enough special effects and the acting is surprisingly well done considering its real life twins who own their roles and Orlando Jones doing his best to sell a serious detective character. The directing is also solid enough to sell the concept with vigor for some of the higher intensity moments. The film all around succeeds at selling the story.

This is not a film for everyone as the concept just might run a little illogical, but if you let the film sweep you for the ride, it's a fun trip with surprisingly good execution. It has its flaws, but it's still the best After Dark Original I've see thus far.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Fertile Ground (2011) - 2/5

My luck with the After Dark Originals had be decent. Not any great ones, but only one stinker (thanks "Banshee"). So I went into "Fertile Ground" with a hop and skip in my step expecting a little clever haunted house flick. What I ended up watching was an overly redundant and excruciatingly slow film that never went anywhere, let alone anywhere original. It had some well executed moments, but they were far too few and far too short to really save this film for drowning in its own melodrama.

Emily (Haily) and Nate Weaver (Harold) have a great marriage, but a recent miscarriage has kicked Emily into a depression. So the two move out to Nate's family home in the country to start a new life. Unfortunately, the ghosts of this haunted house keep appearing to the recovering wife and an unexpected new pregnancy makes things a whole lot more complicated. Even Nate seems to be acting differently...

Well what do you know...its like a less scary version of "The Amityville Horror" with less to be concerned about. That is not a compliment. The movie builds nicely in the beginning, giving us two very believable characters to put our faith in. It sets up the move and the general mindset well and gives us a great creepy farm home and isolated setting for a great haunted house movie. Then it decides to go nowhere and go nowhere fast.

The characters take ridiculous leaps of personality, the tension is only effective in moments, and worst of all - the film never scares. For a haunted house movie there is no jump scares and rarely any creepy things that happen at all. When they do, they are nonsensical and make the audience confused rather than scared. The actors are hit and miss and director Gierasch seems lost with what to do with the uneventful plot elements. He tries to build suspense with some great shots of the house, but after the first couple failures at giving us the punch to the build we just cease to care. Apathy is the biggest enemy of great suspense and the audience falls under its wicked spell.

There is some potential to the work here in "Fertile Ground", but the by-the-numbers "Amityville" knock off plot and the lacking scares ends up boring the audience to death rather than scaring them that way. Disappointment reigns here for this After Dark Original.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Scream Of The Banshee - 1/5

Originally, I was going to give this film a 2 instead of a 1...then I actually started thinking about the film. Despite the potential for some great horror in the concept of a severed banshee head reigning terror in modern times, this film never gathers up enough steam to surpass any of its faulty elements or its low budget. It crumbles under its own idiocy for more often then not and a "surprise" appearance by Lance Henriksen only makes the film feel far more sad to see how far he has fallen.

An archeology professor Whelan (Holly), her team of interns, and her daughter accidentally uncover a box in the basement of the university that contains the head of a banshee captured by the Irish Templar Knights ages ago. When they open the box, they unwillingly unleash the terrible banshee upon the town who begins a killing spree. Only one man obsessed with the box (Henriksen) holds the answer to stopping the terrible monster before everyone loses their lives.

Sounds decent right? It was released by After Dark Originals whose track record thus far has been decent, but when the film started with the SyFy logo though...the air went out of the room. It then followed it up by showing a group of Templar Knights (in drab coloring) behead the banshee with a flying shield that miraculously forms a box over the head to decapitate the monster. Well color me speechless...what an awful way to start this film! Cheap, over dramatic, and nonsensical.

The film only spirals down the toilet drain from there. We are introduced to our protagonists, a group of archeological folk who don't know how to act or give their characters any charm beyond their cliche' blurbs of backstory, and we are on our way to campy town. With the poor character interaction (forced love sub plots? Why the hell not!) and a plot that only gets more nonsensical as it goes, the foundation for "Scream Of The Banshee" is TV made at best and rarely raises my caring level above apathetic.

That's okay. Plenty of horror films lack characters and any sort of thought inducing plot. I just watched the "Friday The 13th: A New Beginning" for pete's sake. Unfortunately, the film lacks any sort of good gore or death sequences to balance out its weak foundations. The special effects are mediocre and rarely make sense - and the death sequences are by the numbers. It's like a semi-violent ghost slasher tale that doesn't find its structure to get things done in any sort of logical manner.

Thusly, go with me on this one and just skip out on "Scream Of The Banshee". It's not even bad enough to be all that unintentionally humorous as it seemingly stumbles its way through a half assed story with half assed production values. One is much better off to see the surprisingly fun "Husk" instead.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Prowl - 3/5

With the slew of vampire movies out there any more, finding anything original is a crap shoot. So instead of looking for anything that adds something new to the mythos, one must instead look for the heart and execution of the film. This is where "Prowl" is a crap shoot itself. Although the idea of the film isn't all that new (nor all that clever), it tries very hard to take a well executed shot at it. Making it a film that shouldn't be as good as it is, but not quite the refreshing film it could have been either. Somewhere right down the middle.

Amber (Hope) has never felt at home in the small town she has grown up in. She doesn't quite fit in with her close friends and working at a butcher shop has gotten...distasteful. So she is off to Chicago to find herself, but as her and her friends road trip up there, their van breaks down and they have to accept a hesitant ride from an odd trucker (Payne). Instead of a quick fix to Chicago, these young folk are going to find themselves on a trip to hell...courtesy of some very hungry vampires.

The plot is basic. Kids on a road trip break down and find themselves trapped in an abandoned slaughterhouse being hunted by vampires. Yep. Not that original. Yet, the writing and directing distinctly try to make this 'coming of age' tale as artistic as possible. The film spends a good portion of time really building up Amber and her issues with her life (throwing in some artistic and rather confusing jump edits to 'future events' that definitely pay off later) before letting the vampire horde upon her and her friends. This first act is actually fairly well crafted and intriguing with some solid acting from our leads (and Payne who takes a throw away role as the trucker and makes it memorable) and some artistic choices from the director. This part of the film definitely rose the bar on where it would go from there.

That's about the time the film gets a bit disappointing. Despite a rather interesting twist that makes many of the odd moments of the first act pay off, the film drowns in modern horror mistakes. The film has a great setting (an abandoned slaughterhouse/factory area), but they rarely use it to create tension or build that larger than life fear. In fact, there is very little good solid atmosphere at all here. With its quick edit, frantic in the moment style editing (which does save the film from having to pour out too much money into special effects) the film feels like a cluster where we don't quite know what's happening. Who died? Why? What's that? Am I supposed to be scared? It just becomes an ADD nightmare with some nice gory bits. It kills the mood and character build of the first part, which is sad because it was damn good.

"Prowl" might not be all that original, but its first half really built something well designed to carry a charm and artistic flair to a normally cliche vampire flick. It falls about in the last half with its lack of atmosphere and poor editing that quickly kill many of the great aspects of what the film could have become, stranding "Prowl" right in the middle of mediocre street with no car and no sign of perseverance.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Husk - 3/5

After Dark Horrorfest's 8 Films To Die For was somewhat revolutionary. They did quite a bit to get independent horror out to that larger market and it would seem After Dark Films is out to make themselves a full blown horror machine. Their first set of releases (under After Dark Originals) contains the following film "Husk", a rather new and fresh take on the 'killer scarecrow' sub genre. The film lacks logistics to its plot, but it does strike its own pose on things.

A group of young people (four guys and the plot necessary girlfriend) are on their way to a nice break from the real world. Unfortunately, they cut across some private land and immense corn fields to get to their unseen destination. When a flock of crows decides to play chicken with the car (ultimately both lose), the five youths find themselves stranded in the middle of the sea of corn. When they go to a close house to look for help, they come to odds with some very pissed scarecrows hell bent on their demise. Looks like its the kids that might be left hanging now (haha, that's a scarecrow pun).

Killer scarecrows might not be the most original idea out there (hell, even Goosebumps had a kids book about a killer scarecrow), but this rather clever take on the genre does itself a lot of favors. For every clever thing it does though, it also has a very illogical one. Nails through the fingers so the scarecrows can tear you apart? Awesome. Characters' ridiculous decisions to not formuate a realistic play of escape? Lame. Dead friends becoming part of the murderous army of scarecrows? Awesome. Why do the crows hit the vehicle in the beginning? Unexplained. The film is a constant give and take with this logic. There are even some very cool concepts that when thought through don't make a lick of sense. We discover that removing the hood seems to remove the dead person from the ranks of being a scarecrow. Then why are the 'possessed' to get up from the dead to make their scarecrow hoods to begin with? It's these little details that can make "Husk" a rather frustrating watch.

On the plus side, the film has a pretty solid production. The directing is a bit formulaic with how it goes about things with occasional gem moments of inspiration here and there, but the acting is rather good for a low budget film and the special effects are effective as hell. They use the isolation and fast moving scarecrows to their maximum effect it works on these levels.

"Husk" is a good horror movie that could have been a modern classic. The execution was there on most of the screen elements with decent acting and great special effects. The film even has a pretty original and clever plot. It just doesn't happen to be fleshed out enough to make a lot of sense. Things are left out to rot away in the corn story-wise and other things go by completely left unexplained or poorly developed. It just hurts the film too much in the end, taking it from one level down to the next. For fans of horror though, "Husk" is decent enough for the buy. It has enough of those shining moments to work its magic.

Written By Matt Reifschneider